ARMY SERVICE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 265, 21 August 1941, Page 2

ARMY SERVICE.

TREATMENT OF OBJECTORS. THE PROCEDURE OUTLINED. (P.A.) WELLINGTON, August 20. An outline of the present procedure adopted in the case of military defaulters was given by the Hon. W. Nash, answering a question in the House of Representatives by Mr J. A. Lee on behalf of the Speaker (the Hon. W. E. Barnard) who had asked if the Minister’s attention had been drawn to the treatment of two objectors to military service who, immediately on being discharged from the Wellington prison, were collected by a military escort and removed to Trentham. Mr Nash said that as a general rule a man who defaulted in reporting for medical examination or dispatch to camp or in any other- respect would be prosecuted in the civil courts. If he were imprisoned, a military escort was detailed to wait at the prison on the termination of his sentence and conduct the man to camp. He was not placed under arrest unless he refused to obey orders given to him. On arrival at camp he was dealt with in the same way as any other soldier who entered camp, but if he refused to obey commands he was prosecuted by court martial under military law. The ,two men mentioned in the question had been dealt with under this procedure.

The setting up of local committees to furnish confidential information to appeal boards regarding appeals by conscientious objectors is considered by the Government to be neither practicable nor desirable, said the Minister of National Service, the Hon. R. Semple, replying to a question by Mr J. A. Roy (Nationalist, Clutha) as to whether the setting up of such committees might be considered. The decision of the appeal boards, said Mr Semple, must be' arrived at on the evidence adduced at the hearing of any particular case.